Tuesday, May 20, 2014

What does a ghetto classroom sound like?

If you ever end up teaching a, let's just say disadvantaged, population, be prepared for the fact that these kids (who claim they can't afford pens and paper) will ALWAYS, and I mean every damn period of every damn day, have a plastic bag (usually from Aldi) full of sodas and small bags of Cheetos (TM) or corn chips. It takes about twenty minutes to consume one of the snack bags because the chips are eaten very daintily, one at a time. So there's the constant rustle, because twenty different people start eating at different times.

Just don't allow food in the classroom, you say? You've never heard these kids whine. It's like asking them to gouge their mothers' eyes out. I'd spend more time telling them to put the fucking chips away than I'd ever spend teaching, sort of like the cell phone thing. So I just put up with it.

Sadly, the chips are an example of two things. First, as what's obviously a primary food source, they explain why these kids are invariably overweight and in poor health. Second, they explain why the kids are stuck in an economic rut. Snack food is more expensive than real food. Buying six small bags is more expensive than buying one big one. Since they obviously had to go to a store in the first place, they could have gotten a pre-made sandwich for less money, which would be healthier.